Civil society calls for an end to climate loans as COP29 wraps up
Environmental activists protest to urge world leaders to commit to a strong climate finance deal during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), in Baku, Azerbaijan November 16, 2024.
What you need to know:
- Activists at COP29 intensified pressure on the developed world to mobilise resources to support African communities with climate adaptation funds that are need-based, and in form of grants.
More than ever before, African environmental civil society organisations, youth groups and country representatives united under one voice during COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, calling on the Global North to keep the promise of climate finance, but desist from imposing loans on climate-burdened countries.
Kenya is one of the countries bedevilled by such climate-related loans of which the government has no option, but to keep taxing the already overtaxed citizens in order to service the ‘climate finance’ debts.
“It is quite immoral to burden African communities, who are already paying the ultimate prize of climate change, with unfair loans to mitigate a disaster, apparently caused by the financier,” said Jessica Mwanzia, the Climate Finance and Gender lead at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.
“Africa emits a paltry four per cent of the total global greenhouse gases, most of which is absorbed just by one carbon sink – the Congo Basin, leaving the continent with almost no, or extremely insignificant emissions,” said the activist.
The World Bank describes the Congo Basin as the “lungs of Africa”, being one of the largest forest-based carbon sinks in the world, absorbing up to 1.2 billion tons of carbon annually against 1.4 million tons of the emissions from the continent.
“Africa faces a unique climate paradox,” said Dr Augustine Njamnshi, the director - African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access. “We are a continent rich in biodiversity, vast forests and vital ecosystems that help stabilise the planet, not to mention a continent rich with minerals essential for energy transition, yet, the most impacted by climate disasters,” he said.
Activists at COP29 intensified pressure on the developed world to mobilise resources to support African communities with climate adaptation funds that are need-based, and in form of grants.
Ironically, African countries, including Kenya, are already grappling with loans guised as ‘climate finance’ through projects that purport to ‘prevent further emission,’ or to sequester ‘existing greenhouse gases’ from the atmosphere.
Furthermore, the climate financiers are seeking to recoup money advanced to African countries to support climate adaptation projects.
“How can a climate financier seek to be paid back money invested in a water project, for example, set up for a community whose water sources have been destroyed as a result of climate change?” Asked Ms Mwanzia, adding: “Loans are supposed to be given to business entities whose main objective is to make profits and not to communities struggling to adapt to climate-related disasters.”
Through the Green Climate Fund (GFC), the world’s largest facility for climate finance that was established within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assist developing countries with adaptation and mitigation activities, Kenyan tax payers are among African communities that have been exposed to debt burdens amounting to hundreds of billions of shillings in the name of climate finance.
According to Charles Mwangi, a Nairobi-based environment activist, it becomes even more unfair to the taxpayers because some of the projects do not have footprints of the target communities in terms of prioritisation.
So far, Kenya is involved in 20 GCF mitigation and adaptation projects worth hundreds of billions of shillings, some which cut across multiple countries, yet, most of them are earmarked as loans to be serviced by local taxpayers.
According to data available at the GCF website, all the 20 projects are managed by foreign intermediaries, with supervisors based in the US, France, UK, Netherlands, and Italy, among other countries, apart from only one — ‘Enhancing community resilience and water security in the Upper Athi River Catchment Area, Kenya — ’ whose intermediary is the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).
One of the country’s specific grants known as ‘Ending Drought Emergencies: Ecosystem Based Adaptation in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Rangelands’ , which is a Sh4 billion adaptation project, is managed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature under the supervision of a Swizz-based consultant.
Another Sh13 billion equity financing project known as ‘KawiSafi Ventures Fund,’ targeting Kenya and Rwanda, has also been channelled through Acumen Fund Inc, another foreign entity, under supervision of the US-based consultant.
Also of interest is a climate adaptation loan worth Sh25 billion known as ‘Africa Rural Climate Adaptation Finance Mechanism for East Africa region,’ targeting four Eat African countries. The loan, which is to be serviced by taxpayers in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, has been channelled through the International Fund for Agricultural development under the Rome based consultant.
“It will make more sense if most of these projects are adaptation-based with a sense of ownership by local communities, who are on the frontline of the climate crisis,” said Dr Wilber Ottichilo, Vihiga governor and the chairperson of Environment Committee at the Council of Governors.
The activists pointed out that most of the finances are lost in expensive air tickets for foreign consultants, their hotel bills, and allowances at the expense of poor taxpayers who are riddled with climate-related disasters.
